[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 84 ~Onward We Go~
Title: The Things We Can't Control
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame. Others to be added later.
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: crime drama au
Beta by: my cat Gemma. and maeda_marika
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. They immediately clash but is that all they'll ever be? How much is fate and how much choice? And how will their meeting change the world around them?
Author's Note: Ah, I thought I'd never get this chapter written. It's just... Eh, doesn't matter. The point is, it's done and it's here for you. And the next past!chapter won't have this problem. Though the next present!chapter might be a bit difficult.
BANNER BY deshisoraba!!
Okay, now I have two banners and they're both amazing, so I will be rotating them out every few chapters. Thanks to both going_dangerous and deshisoraba for my wonderful two banners.
Warning: This gets graphic often occasionally, containing at the very least foul language, character death, nefarious crimes, rape, etc etc.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_ Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
Chapter 84 ~Onward We Go~
August came and it was official. Yurina was right after all; she was going to have a girl. The morning sickness was finally gone, though now she complained about aches. The whole thing made Kame especially glad he’d never have to be pregnant.
Though, despite her complaints and the occasional grouchiness, she really was glowing. Well, he’d heard people say that before, that women who were pregnant kind of glowed, but he hadn’t really understood it. But now he did.
And, though he’d really learned not to say it (he didn’t want to get kneed in the groin again), she was getting more and more girly, which was just… odd. He was definitely not used to a girly Yurina. He was used to the Yurina that punched a hole in the wall in the stairwell.
Then again…
He was pretty sure that if he pissed her off, he’d see that side of her. It wasn’t gone, just hiding.
September saw Yurina’s last drug test, which she naturally passed, and the end of her court monitoring.
Things were also much better for the twins. While he could hardly say they were in charge at the prison, they had accumulated a lot of power there. Not the sort of power that, say, Shibata Takeshi had. He was the one in control, moreso than any of the guards even. Or so he had been told. No, the power Akira and Aoi had was more subtle than that. But it was enough to make Kame smile because he knew the twins were, despite being incarcerated, the same as ever. Even those first horrible months hadn’t broken them.
Kame’s job stocking shelves at the department store was going well for the most part, also. It had taken a while for him to get used to being called Odagiri or Ryu but as best as he could tell, nobody working there suspected it wasn’t his true name. And since he didn’t deal with customers, there was less chance of having someone he knew blow his cover. Well, true, he’d seen a few people he knew, but after everything that went down with The Club, they weren’t too eager to talk to him. Despite the changes in the prison for the twins, most of the “normal” society had no clue and thus wanted as little to do with him (and therefore them) as possible. The first few times he was spotted by someone he knew, he thought his heart might just explode from the adrenaline. But he’d settled down, finally. They ignored him and he ignored them.
Though…
It would be so nice to see at least one of them smile at him like they used to. While the twins became like brothers, the regular customers became the closest thing he’d ever had to friends. Maybe he just wasn’t meant to have friends. Things soured between him and Yoko long before he left the stroll. The customers from the clubs thought the worst of him now, too. He had no friends left from his childhood.
October brought a slight chill with it. Yurina’s pregnancy was progressing like it was supposed to, according to the doctor. Work was the same as ever. He was saving as much of his paycheck as he could and putting the rest of it into food and utilities and the doctor bills, living quite frugally.
Well, he did splurge on all manner of stuff for the baby. Crib, toys… cute little onesies that had pirate designs on it (that earned him the Raised Eyebrow Expression of Humoring and a gentle reminder the baby was a girl). Yurina was like a sister to him, so it really felt like he was gaining a niece. He was sure he couldn’t be happier about it even if it was his own child being born in a couple of months.
Yurina didn’t come with him to visit the prison in October or in November. She said it was because she was having more trouble moving around those days but if he was reading her correctly, that wasn’t the real reason. She’d gotten the unreasonable idea that she was ugly because she was fat.
Kame had tried at first to convince her that pregnancy isn’t the same thing as being fat and that nobody would think she was ugly, but that only further convinced her (she didn’t speak to him for a day but thankfully she hadn’t kneed him again). He knew women didn’t like to be called fat, so calling her “not fat” should have been good, right? But it wasn’t.
The whole thing left Kame with the thought that sometimes women don’t make sense. Hmm… maybe if he’d said “pretty” instead of “not fat” then it might have gone over a bit better…
December brought an entirely new problem.
It was really just a coincidence. It wasn’t like Tackey had been looking for him. And when they spotted each other, Kame figured he’d ignore him disapprovingly like all the others. Only he didn’t. He walked right up to Kame and, before Kame could say anything, blurted out rather loudly, “Kame, I owe you an apology.”
Kame shushed him and said that if he wanted to talk, they should step outside for a bit. Tackey looked confused but shrugged and followed him out a side door.
“Kame, I… well, let me just put it plainly. My older sister’s husband works at the prison. I know… the things the papers said were all lies. I…”
Breath caught in Kame’s throat, making it difficult to speak but finally he asked, “What else do you know?”
“Just that. But, you know, even if they were guilty, we never should have taken it out on you. We were all so confused and angry-”
“They’re still confused and angry, Tackey,” Kame interrupted with. “All of them…” he added bitterly.
“Just so. But what I’m saying is, regardless of why, it was wrong of us. And even if the twins were guilty, it was still wrong. It wasn’t your fault. The others won’t listen to me - except for Tsubasa, of course - and I had no idea I’d even ever see you again, but I’m glad to get the chance to apologize.”
Kame wanted to stay mad but with so many good memories of working at the club, he was just happy to not be hated any more.
They talked for a few minutes and then they went their separate ways. Well, semi-separate, considering they were both going back into the store using the same door.
Kame smiled from then on… until the next day when his boss pulled him aside.
Someone (it could have been an employee or a particularly observant and meddlesome regular customer) had heard Tackey call him “Kame” and had told the boss. And the boss was pissed. He railed on about it being a family establishment and how he couldn’t have liars working for him because who knew what other sins he was concealing.
There was nothing to be for it.
Job number two, gone.
How was he supposed to support them now? Good thing he’d been saving his money, every penny he could.
He spent the rest of December job-hunting. He wasn’t having much luck again because he couldn’t use the department store as a reference because he didn’t want a potential new employer to know he was lying about his identity. So, again, he was just some inexperienced kid.
Why was it so hard to find a job? Surely these people turning him down recognized that even they at one point were inexperienced kids who got past it because someone hired them anyway.
But the New Year was fast approaching. Yurina was due any day now. They’d find a way to make it all work.
Somehow.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 85 ~Maru~
A/N: I hate writing filler chapters. Only truly significant thing is that Kame loses his job after Tackey apologizes. But next past!chapter will most definitely NOT be a bunch of filler.
You'd think that filler would be the easier stuff to write, but it really isn't. It's much harder (to me) to write filler than to write convoluted and strange interweaving plots.
But, all that aside, I hope you guys like it and I'm very sorry for how long it took to get it up. It's been like, a week, right?